Rule 4 Privacy Protection for Filings Made with the Court
Rule Text
(a) REDACTED FILINGS.
(1) Required Redactions. Unless the court orders otherwise, a party or nonparty must redact, in an electronic or paper filing with the court, an individual’s social-security number and taxpayer-identification number and a financial-account number, except that a party or nonparty making the filing may include the following:
(A) the acronym “SS#” where the individual’s social-security number would have been included;
(B) the acronym “TID#” where the individual’s taxpayer-identification number would have been included; and
(C) the last four digits of the financial-account number.
(2) Permitted Redactions. Unless the court orders otherwise, a party or non-party, in an electronic or paper filing with the court, may use a minor’s initials in place of the minor’s name.
(b) FILINGS MADE UNDER SEAL. The court may order that a filing be made under seal without redaction. The court may later unseal the filing or order the person who made the filing to file a redacted version for the public record.
(c) PROTECTIVE ORDERS. For good cause, the court may by order in a case:
(1) require redaction of additional information; or
(2) limit or prohibit a nonparty’s remote electronic access to a document filed with the court.
(d) MOTION FOR ADDITIONAL UNREDACTED FILING UNDER SEAL. A person who makes a redacted filing and wishes to file an additional unredacted copy must file a motion to file an unredacted copy under seal. If granted, the court must retain the unredacted copy as part of the record.
(e) WAIVER OF PROTECTION OF IDENTIFIERS. A person waives the protection of Rule 4(a) as to the person’s own information by filing it without redaction and not under seal. If a person includes his or her own information by mistake, the court may permit the person to withdraw the filing and replace it with a redacted version.
(f) RESPONSIBILITY TO REDACT. The responsibility for redacting these personal identifiers rests solely with the person making the filing.